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City Limits

Why Australia's cities are broken and how we can fix them

Jane-Frances Kelly, Paul Donegan

Although many of the joys of Australian life are to be found in our cities, many of our problems are as well.

Our bush heritage helped to define our identity, but today Australia is a nation of cities. A higher proportion of Australians live in cities than almost any other country, and most of our national wealth is generated in them. For most of the twentieth century, our cities gave us some of the highest living standards in the world. But they are no longer keeping up with changes in how we live and how our economy works.The distance between where people live and where they work is growing fast. The housing market isn't working, locking many Australians out of where and how they'd like to live. The daily commute is getting longer, putting pressure on social and family life and driving up living costs.Instead of bringing us together, Australia's cities are dividing Australians—between young and old, rich and poor, the outer suburbs and the inner city.Neglecting our cities…

Our bush heritage helped to define our identity, but today Australia is a nation of cities. A higher proportion of Australians live in cities than almost any other country, and most of our national wealth is generated in them. For most of the twentieth century, our cities gave us some of the highest living standards in the world. But they are no longer keeping up with changes in how we live and how our economy works.The distance between where people live and where they work is growing fast. The housing market isn't working, locking many Australians out of where and how they'd like to live. The daily commute is getting longer, putting pressure on social and family life and driving up living costs.Instead of bringing us together, Australia's cities are dividing Australians—between young and old, rich and poor, the outer suburbs and the inner city.Neglecting our cities has real consequences for our lives now, and for our future prosperity.Using stories and case studies to show how individuals, families and businesses experience life in cities today, City Limits provides an account of why Australia's cities are broken, and how we can fix them.

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An eye-opener ... Cities have a much bigger effect on the way the economy works and the way we live than most of us realise.”